Rocket Science @ MIT : Ali Rahimi's Aluminium Foil Helmets (a link by Carl)

There is this guy called Ali Rahimi who works on computer vision and who seems to be a funny guy.
At least he conducted this great piece of scientific research "On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets" : Using a 250,000$ network analyzer he concluded that the government started the aluminium foil helmet craze to gain access to peoples heads/brains.

Chromeo, the Hoff, Baden vs. Swabia

Long time no (real) post, but I had to finish my mémoire.
So the Chromeo concert in Berlin (1st concert in Germany ever!) got canceled cause Dave1 had an eye disease. Hope he'll get better, soon -- and that the alternate concert will take place when I'm there.

Some tiny random links accumulated over the last weeks:

• A nice Jazz performance slash pantomime video, implementing the communication character of the Bird's sax involved in a heated debate with Dizzy Gillespie's counterpart (thanks, Steffi)
• German history with American support (thanks, François): David Hasselhoff performing "I've been looking for freedom" on the Berlin wall in 1990. Great guy, great jacket, great scarf, great hair, great song. Totally don't understand his recent decline.
  
• A tiny glimpse on the upcoming posts on German comedians (thanks, Steven): Mathias Richling, one of the better contemporary German comedians, commenting on the German minister of the interior Wolfgang Schäuble and his recent decisions before, during and after the G8 summit (Richling born Swabian, Schäuble a native of Baden, by the way) . Very acid-tongued but definitely funny (unfortunately only in German).
• ...and, of course, the recent hype clip on the web: 5 seconds of dramatic chipmunk

GP's Worldwide Festival 2007 and 2008

As announced last night on his show, the Worldwide Festival website is finally online.
The most important information: Festival pass for 3 days is 43 € and there will be 5 (!) WWFs in 2008:

• In 2006: Sete (France)
• In 2007: London, Shanghai and Sete
• In 2008: London, Beijing, Tokyo, Frankfort and Sete.

Photolog pt. VIII - Paris Portable

Bruce Sterling and Mercedes Bunz at Elektrischer Reporter

For some months now I have been watching the geeky "Elektrischer Reporter" online (sorry--80% in German). It features a weekly interview on the future of the internet and the technologization of society, topics I feel (urged to be) interested in and I've been posting about in the past.
Yesterday, I watched the interview with scifi author Bruce Sterling who, after some rather boring first minutes, said some very relevant things on topics that were--to questionable extent--also discussed at the G8 summit.
Today, however, I watched the interview with mind-boggling Mercedes Bunz who, in addition to having a great name, has a lot of very smart things to tell.
I recommend everybody (who understands German) to watch her 10 minute interview.

GP's Worldwide Festival - Updated Line-Up

Source: worldwidefestival.com

125th Birthday of Karl Valentin - Wrdlbrmpfd

On June 4, 1882, the great German comedian Karl Valentin was born (died Feb 9, 1948). Based in Munich, he produced great 'miniatures' for the visual, auditory and audiovisual media. The New York Magazine called him "the Charlie Chaplin of Munich Dadaists".
His humor is hard to describe and sometimes not so easily accessible. Check out his official website (with example media), when you're in Munich: his great Karl Valentin Musäum in the Isartor, and the example short cuts (one, two & three) available on spiegel.de (who reminded me of his greatness).

I guess in some upcoming posts I will mention some other great German comedians...

Cool Common - Goodies and Video

I just posted it two weeks ago: the new Common album 'Finding Forever' will be out, soon (mid July).
The single 'The People' can be heard on his myspace site and now the new video of 'The Game' has been put up online.



Furthermore, the frequency of Common news on the Okayplayer board and in the forums is increasing. There you can download for example a great sampler called Cool Common Collected with rare Common tracks and remixes.

Sonntagnachmittag Guestmix Japanese Invasion

Remember? I already posted a couple of times on the web radio project sonntagnachmittag by ink on hunderttausend.de, including when I contributed my own guestmix SundaySoothinMusic last fall.
There is a new guestmix called Japanese Invasion up on the web by Tokyo correspondent Steven.
It features a nice cross-section through epochs and genres of Japanese music. You can access it by clicking on the link just below the picture.

The playlist:
01 Unknown – Japanese Invasion
02 Soil&"Pimp" Sessions – Summer Goddess
03 Akiko Wada – Tsurete-tte, dokomademo
04 Thelonious Monk – Kojo no Tsuki (Japanese Folk Song)
(Controversial Remix feat. Nietzsche and Ezra Pound)
05 The Peanuts – Kakao no Hitomi
06 Crazy Ken Band – Tiger&Dragon
07 Pepe California – Blitzkrieg Bop
08 Honeyside
09 Finger Five – I Want You Back
10 Chitose Hajime – Sangojyuugoya
11 Lina – Toki ni wa
12 Ambivalence – What's da Deal feat. Phife Dawg
13 Minjah – Enrai
14 Punch the Monkey! – Lupin III. Theme

---
...My absolute favorite is--by the way--Chitose Hajime's Sangojyuugoya directly after the Jackson 5 remake.